Prevent Outlook from dialing when it starts

If you have the Internet Mail, Internet E-mail (IMEP) or Microsoft Exchange Server service installed, Outlook, Exchange client or Windows Messaging may dial your ISP automatically. Either you have configured the Internet Mail or Internet E-mail to check mail on a regular schedule and dial automatically, or the Microsoft Exchange Server service is trying to locate a DNS server so that it can find the Exchange Server.

Exchange Server | Internet E-mail | Internet Mail | More Information

Exchange Server

If Outlook is set up to connect to Exchange Server and it dials whenever you start Outlook, this generally means that Outlook cannot find the server on the network and is set up to automatically connect to the Internet. Outlook tries to make an Internet connection to get to a DNS server that might tell it where to find the Exchange Server. There are several ways to approach this problem:

Method #1: Add a DNS server to the network.

Method #2: If the client has Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x, in Control Panel | Internet, on the Connection tab, clear the Connect to the Internet as needed option.

Method #3: If the client has Internet Explorer 4.0, in Control Panel | Internet, on the Connection tab, choose Connect to the Internet using a local area network.

Method #4: If the client has Internet Explorer 5.x, in Control Panel | Internet, on the Connections tab, make sure the checkbox for Dial whenever a network connection is not present is unchecked. Also click the Settings button and make sure that the Do not allow Internet applications to use this connection is checked.

Method #5 (Preferred, if you don’t have a DNS server): Edit the C:\Windows\Hosts file (creating it if needed) to include a pointer to the IP address of the Exchange Server. Save the following two lines to C:\Windows\Hosts on the Exchange client PC:

127.0.0.1 localhost
n.n.n.n <exchange server name>

where n.n.n.n represents the numeric IP address for the Exchange Server and <exchange server name> represents the server name that the user has defined for the Microsoft Exchange Server service in the profile.

Also change the client’s RPC Binding Order to use TCP/IP by saving the following four lines to a file with a .REG extension and double-clicking on it.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Exchange Provider]
"Rpc_Binding_Order"="ncacn_ip_tcp,ncacn_np"

This is the preferred method for networks without a DNS server, since methods 2-4 have the side effect of disabling Windows’ ability to automatically connect to Internet resources. If you use this method, the client should also connect to the server noticeably faster. Many thanks to Greg Askew for posting the detailed instructions for this method in the newsgroups.

Internet E-mail

This applies to either the IMEP patch for Outlook 97 or either Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000 running in Corporate/Workgroup mode.

Choose Tools | Options | Internet E-mail and clear the box for checking your e-mail accounts every xx minutes. This turns off scheduled connections, but you can press F5 to check your mail any time you want.

Internet Mail

This applies to the Internet Mail service for the Exchange client, Windows Messaging or Outlook 97:
Choose Tools | Services, and bring up the Properties dialog for Internet Mail. On the Connection tab, check the box for Work offline and use Remote Mail. This turns off scheduled connections, but you can press F5 to check your mail any time you want.